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Four Canberra United players in World Cup Squad

Four Canberra United players have made the Matildas squad to compete in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals in Germany. Goalkeeper Lydia Williams, midfielders Emily Van Egmond and Sally Shipard and defender Ellyse Perry have all made the 21-player squad announced by Westfield Matildas Head Coach Tom Sermanni today.

Four Canberra United players have made the Matildas squad to compete in the 2011 FIFA Women-s World Cup Finals in Germany. Goalkeeper Lydia Williams, midfielders Emily Van Egmond and Sally Shipard and defender Ellyse Perry have all made the 21-player squad announced by Westfield Matildas Head Coach Tom Sermanni today.

The Westfield Matildas squad contains 13 FIFA Women-s World Cup debutants and an average age of just under 22 making this team the youngest squad Australia has ever sent to a World Cup.

Seven players under the age of 20 have been selected in the squad including Westfield W-League Player of the Year Kyah Simon, Tameka Butt, 16-year-old Caitlin Foord and 17-year-old trio Emily van Egmond, Sam Kerr and Teigen Allen.

Star striker Lisa De Vanna has been selected in the squad following her efforts at the recent Gold Coast training camp and will join her teammates on June 14 in Sydney to travel to Germany.

“This has been one of the toughest selection processes I have ever had to go through and there were a lot of variables the coaching staff had to weigh up before selecting this final 21 player list,” said Sermanni.

“The camps have been incredibly competitive and players have emerged during this process that were not even on my list when we won the AFC Women-s Asian Cup last year.

“Overall I am very happy with the composition of the squad but it is incredibly difficult to have to leave certain players out.

“The team has changed dramatically in the past 18 months and as I said before the Asian Cup we will definitely go into this tournament with cautious optimism.”

The Westfield Matildas leave for Germany on June 14 to play in two training matches against Mexico (June 20 - Gottingen) and England (June 23 - Wolfsburg) prior to their first match against Brazil on June 29 (June 30, 2.15am AEST SBS ONE), before playing Equatorial Guinea on July 3 (10pm AEST SBS TWO) and Norway on July 6 (July 7, 2am AEST SBS ONE).